Pilgrimages

In exile, Jews continued to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem three times a year, during the festivals of Pesach (Passover), Sukkot (Tabernacles) and Shavuot (Pentecost).

These pilgrimages to Jerusalem began when Solomon built the First Temple. Jews from all over the country would travel to Jerusalem to bring sacrifices to the Temple, study Torah, pray and celebrate. Once the Romans went to conquer the Jewish city Lydda, but they found the city empty because all the Jews had gone to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles.

During the Second Temple, Jewish pilgrims would travel to Jerusalem from Alexandria, Antioch, Babylon, and even from distant parts of the Roman Empire.

After the destruction of the Second Temple, the Romans did not allow Jewish pilgrims into the city. However, Talmudic sources say that some Jews secretly made their way to the site of the Temple anyway. When Jews were again allowed into Jerusalem in the fifth century, Jerusalem witnessed massive pilgrimages. From then until the present day, Jews have continued to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem during the three pilgrimage festivals.

The Wall

The Western Wall, a section of the wall that surrounded the Temple Mount and the only remains of the Second Temple, became for the Jews in exile both a reminder of their glorious past and a symbol of hope for their return to Jerusalem.

Jews consider the Western Wall, sometimes called the Wailing Wall, to be their holiest site. For centuries, Jews have traveled from all over the world to pray at the Wall. The most popular custom is to write prayers on paper and place them in the crevices of the Wall. The Wall has become a favorite site for religious ceremonies such as the Bar Mitzvah and for nationalistic ceremonies such as the swearing-in of Israeli paratroopers.

Jewish Majority and the New City

Jews lived in Jerusalem since they were allowed back into the city in the fifth century. However, Jews became the largest single group of inhabitants of Jerusalem in the mid-nineteenth century, while the city was under Ottoman rule.

According to the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies:

Year Jews Arabs/Others
1870 11000 10000
1905 40000 20000
1931 54000 39000
1946 99500 65000 (40,000 Muslims and 25,000 Christians)

In 1860, a wealthy British Jew named Sir Moses Montefiore purchased land outside the gates of Jerusalem, and founded there a new Jewish neighborhood - Mishkenot Shaánanim. Soon after, other Jewish neighborhoods were also founded outside the Old City of Jerusalem. These Jewish neighborhoods became known as the New City of Jerusalem.

Following World War I, control of Jerusalem was transferred from the Ottomans to the British. During the British Mandate, Jerusalem's Jewish community built new neighborhoods and buildings, such as the King David Hotel, the Central Post Office, Hadassah Hospital, and Hebrew University.

As Jewish Jerusalem was growing faster than Arab Jerusalem, tension in the city between Arabs and Jews increased during the British Mandate. In an effort to control the rising tension, the British issued the White Paper in 1939, a document limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine. A few months later, Nazi Germany attacked Poland, starting World War II.